An Iowa college student gets swallowed alive by a sperm whale in Whalefall, the new survival thriller from director Brian Duffield that hit theaters in October 2026, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie takes its absurd premise far too seriously to be much fun.
The film, adapted by Duffield and Daniel Kraus from Kraus's novel, stars Austin Abrams as Jay Gardiner, a young man who fled an emotionally abusive father for college in Iowa and returns home to Monterey, California, for the one-year anniversary of his dad's death. His attempt to recover his father's remains from the ocean floor goes badly when a panicking giant squid, itself being hunted by a sperm whale, drags Jay down with it, and the whale swallows them both.
An Iowa Kid at the Bottom of the Food Chain
The Iowa connection is thin but real. Jay's father, Mitt Gardiner, played by Josh Brolin, is a gruff diving legend whose relentless efforts to toughen up his sensitive son crossed into emotional abuse, bad enough that Jay ran off to college in Iowa to escape the 4:30 a.m. bellowed wake-up calls and the constant schooling in the dangers of the sea. It is one of the few details The Hollywood Reporter's critic found credible in a script otherwise weighed down by what the review calls soggy Dad Drama.
The Hollywood Reporter's review, published October 14, 2026, is blunt about the film's failings. The critic writes that the movie, despite its wild premise, is not crazy enough to be entertaining, and that it plays more like imitation sci-fi than a nature survival thriller. The review compares much of the running time to watching a colonoscopy from the point of view of the camera.
What Works in Whalefall
Not everything sinks. The review credits the initial shock of the swallowing as well handled, particularly a moment when Jay tries to scramble up the whale's jawline by climbing its teeth. The fight with the sharp-beaked squid, which does serious damage to Jay while fighting its own descent into the whale's digestive tract, is described as a scene of relative excitement.
Abrams also earns praise for doing yeoman's work with a character stuck in one tight spot for most of the film, grunting and gasping as his body gets progressively more beat up. The review calls the overall effect Nat Geo torture porn, which in context is meant as the movie's better half.
Other early reactions have been more forgiving.